Random ramblings (Life at ISB)

Isn't there a saying that goes something like, "You didn't realize how good you had it until it was gone..."?

I'm certainly feeling this sentiment as I encounter some of the more frustrating parts of being in business school in India! The timeliness, feedback mechanisms, and formal processes at Duke seem brilliant to me now that I'm living without such things. Granted, ISB is a young school and is breaking ground in a number of ways, but in terms of Western efficiency, transparency, and structure, the school's got a lot of growing to do.

For all of you that have traveled or lived in developing countries, you know that organization and structure are relative terms and that, comparatively, the U.S. has them pretty well mastered. I suppose that knowing ISB is a top-ranked global B-school led me to assume (improperly) that things would be almost as organized as at Duke. Well, lesson learned!

One big difference between Duke and ISB with regards to following formal processes is the course structure and syllabus. While courses are essentially set in stone at Duke (and Hopkins, Dayton, and Chaminade - the other US universities I've attended), here at ISB, students in all but one of my courses have convinced the professors to eliminate assignments, alter grading schemes, or change the dates of final exams after the classes are underway. Emails are circulated by students to vote on such changes (in the most structured of such changes), but the assumption is that if you don't reply, you agree with the proposed change. I can't even imagine a scenario in which this would happen at Duke... When a syllabus is printed, it's final (and, in my opinion, that's a good thing!)

Similarly, in a pass/fail elective that I'm taking (read: pass for showing up, fail for missing more than one class), two of the four initial classes were rescheduled on the morning of the 12:30 class. In one case, multiple last-minute emails went out with conflicting times, and when students missed the class, we were instructed that in the case of another "miss", we would indeed fail. In the fourth class, no attendance sheet was collected, and the entire original class schedule for the term is now "pending." Classes can (and likely will) be rescheduled from the allotted times to any given day of the week (weekends included) or hour of the day (during other classes as well). Something just seems illogical here.

So, in closing, let this not be pointless (or semi-therapeutic?) ranting but rather a way of reminding all of you Duke MBAs that we're really lucky for what we have - the well-planned, formalized structures that make living and operating in a B-school environment all the more enjoyable.